Puppet Masters
With the French people beginning to question the billions being spent on nuclear weapons, President Jacques Chirac has taken a page out of George W. Bush's book, rewriting French military doctrine and threatening terrorists with nukes. In this ironic article from Iran's State-controlled Tehran Times, the Iranian regime charges France with being Washington's 'client State' and making the 'unthinkable' quite possible.
Running Time: 00:49:42
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Here's the transcript of the show:
We know that the majority of your people want this war to end and based on the substance of the polls, which indicate Americans do not want to fight Muslims on Muslim land, nor do they want Muslims to fight them on their land, we do not mind offering a long-term truce based on just conditions that we will stand by ... a truce that offers security and stability and the rebuilding of Iraq and Afghanistan that war has destroyed ... And there is nothing wrong with this solution except that it deprives the influential people and warlords in America from hundreds of billions of dollars - those who supported [President George W] Bush's election campaign with billions of dollars. - Osama bin Laden on tape, January 18Just a slow, composed, husky voice out of a telephone line recorded on a scratched tape (not digital; a mere cassette). No video. Just a voice - capable of sending the markets into a tailspin and the networks into hysteria, spiking the oil bourses in London and New York, resetting the global agenda, unleashing armies of US intelligence analysts scrambling to confirm if the voice is real or fake.
You had totally vanished from the face of the Earth for more than a year. You are the most wanted man in the world. You re-enter the global stage just with your voice, a mere whisper. The simplicity of it. What politician would not dream of such power?
Osama bin Laden, master media manipulator turned global politician, is back. Talk about astonishing timing.
ABUJA (Reuters) - Militants behind attacks aimed at disrupting Nigeria's oil exports said they will target all producers in the country, in a message singling out U.S.-based Chevron.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which has caused major disruption at Royal Dutch Shell and kidnapped four foreign oil workers, said it has also attacked installations run by France's Total and Italy's Agip, a unit of ENI.
"We have decided not to limit our attacks to Shell oil as our ultimate aim is to prevent Nigeria from exporting oil," the militant group said in an email statement to Reuters.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which has caused major disruption at Royal Dutch Shell and kidnapped four foreign oil workers, said it has also attacked installations run by France's Total and Italy's Agip, a unit of ENI.
"We have decided not to limit our attacks to Shell oil as our ultimate aim is to prevent Nigeria from exporting oil," the militant group said in an email statement to Reuters.
DAMASCUS, Syria Syria asserted Thursday that Iran has a right to atomic technology and said U.S. and European objections to Tehran's nuclear ambitions are not persuasive.
President Bashar Assad of Syria, a long-time Iranian ally facing criticism from the same parties, said he backs Iran's moves toward nuclear power and wants to strengthen ties.
"We support Iran regarding its right to peaceful nuclear technology," Assad said at a news conference with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the start of two days of meetings.
"It is the right of Iran and any other state to own nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Countries that object to that have not provided a convincing or logical reason."
President Bashar Assad of Syria, a long-time Iranian ally facing criticism from the same parties, said he backs Iran's moves toward nuclear power and wants to strengthen ties.
"We support Iran regarding its right to peaceful nuclear technology," Assad said at a news conference with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the start of two days of meetings.
"It is the right of Iran and any other state to own nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. Countries that object to that have not provided a convincing or logical reason."
The German Intelligence Agency (BND) provided German passports to agents of the Israeli secret intelligence service, or MOSSAD, to facilitate operations the Middle East, reporters alleged.
The allegations raised by a former BND official found their way into the German newspaper Koelner Stadtanzieger and the Israeli daily Jerusalem Post, and imply that MOSSAD agents are disguising themselves as German citizens in order to perform their "sensitive" tasks in the Middle East.
The allegations raised by a former BND official found their way into the German newspaper Koelner Stadtanzieger and the Israeli daily Jerusalem Post, and imply that MOSSAD agents are disguising themselves as German citizens in order to perform their "sensitive" tasks in the Middle East.
In an riveting display of modern technological efficency that undoubtedly thrilled the editors of Popular Mechanics magazine, last Friday, by way of a Predator Drone aircraft, the CIA fired missiles at a group of houses in a village on Pakistan's north Western border with Afghanistan. Eighteen Pakistani villagers, including women and children, were either blown to pieces, burned to death or crushed as their homes collapsed on top of them as they slept in their beds.
The official reason for the attack, as reported in the mainstream media, was to rid the world of a few more Islamic terrorists who, as White house Spokesman Scott McClelland reminded us, "continue to seek to do harm to the American people". Somehow, the murder of those eighteen Pakistani villagers means that American's are now tangibly safer.
The official reason for the attack, as reported in the mainstream media, was to rid the world of a few more Islamic terrorists who, as White house Spokesman Scott McClelland reminded us, "continue to seek to do harm to the American people". Somehow, the murder of those eighteen Pakistani villagers means that American's are now tangibly safer.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has allowed CNN to resume operating in the country after the American cable news network apologised for mistakenly quoting him saying Tehran was seeking nuclear weapons, state radio reported.
During CNN's live translation of a press conference by Ahmadinejad Saturday, the president was quoted as saying that "we believe all nations are allowed to have nuclear weapons" and that the West should not "deprive us to have nuclear weapons".
The president was, however, using a Farsi word that meant "technology" and not "weapons".
During CNN's live translation of a press conference by Ahmadinejad Saturday, the president was quoted as saying that "we believe all nations are allowed to have nuclear weapons" and that the West should not "deprive us to have nuclear weapons".
The president was, however, using a Farsi word that meant "technology" and not "weapons".
Germany's BND foreign intelligence agency has issued German passports for Israel's Mossad secret service, the daily Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger quoted a former high-ranking BND member as saying on Saturday.
According to the official, Mossad agents are using German passports during their covert operations in Middle Eastern countries.
Reacting to the news report, an unidentified BND spokesman said, "Of course we also have a cooperation with Mossad." The number of issued German passports for Mossad operatives has reportedly increased dramatically since September 11, 2001.
Mossad used also passports from Canada and New Zealand in the 1990s.
According to the official, Mossad agents are using German passports during their covert operations in Middle Eastern countries.
Reacting to the news report, an unidentified BND spokesman said, "Of course we also have a cooperation with Mossad." The number of issued German passports for Mossad operatives has reportedly increased dramatically since September 11, 2001.
Mossad used also passports from Canada and New Zealand in the 1990s.
Gold continued its rise, closing at 556.90 dollars an ounce on Friday, up 2.7% from $542.20 the Friday before. The dollar closed at 0.8236 euros on Friday, virtually unchanged from 0.8239 the week before. The euro, in turn, closed at 1.2142 compared to 1.2137 the week before. Gold in euros would be 458.66 euros an ounce up 2.7% from 446.73 at the previous week's close. Oil closed at 63.92 dollars an ounce, down 0.6% from $64.31 the week before. Oil in euros would be 52.64 euros a barrel, down 0.7% from 52.99 at the end of the previous week. The gold/oil ratio closed at 8.71, up 3.3% from 8.43 the Friday before. In the U.S. stock market, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 10,959.87, virtually unchanged from 10,959.31 the week before. The NASDAQ closed at 2,317.04 up 0.5% from 2,305.62 at the close of the previous week. The yield on the ten-year U.S. Treasury note was 4.35 at Friday's close, down two basis points from 4.37 the week before.
Besides gold, everything in the numbers looks pretty normal. Gold, however, has risen 10% since Christmas. The economic crisis is here. So why is the stock market doing so well? Steven Lagavulin of the Deconsumption blog points out that the U.S. Federal Reserve Board has pumped more money into the system than they have since September 11, 2001:
Besides gold, everything in the numbers looks pretty normal. Gold, however, has risen 10% since Christmas. The economic crisis is here. So why is the stock market doing so well? Steven Lagavulin of the Deconsumption blog points out that the U.S. Federal Reserve Board has pumped more money into the system than they have since September 11, 2001:
Fed FloodMichael Nystrom confronts the high stock price question and also concludes that it is due to the massive increase in the M3 money supply:
I've been watching this handy thumbnail graph of Federal open market actions for some time now and thought it might be of interest to pass along. It basically reflects the daily liquidity that's being created--measuring the power of the proverbial printing presses. And frankly, they've been kicked into high gear for the past couple weeks. I assumed this was just to give a quick boost to the stock market going into year's end, but I gotta tell ya.....yesterday's action was massive...I mean the kind of liquidity you wouldn't see unless there was real Fear at the Fed.
To give you some perspective you might eyeball the bottom black lines on this longer-term chart....and note that the last time we saw 60 billion was in the second week of Sept. 2001....
Comment: Clever analysis. Too bad it is based on the assumption that the voice is really Bin Laden.